I've had the 6'2" Rawson Quad for a few weeks now and I've had 6 sessions with a kite and one paddle out day on the board. Here's my quick review for a 175lbs rider. I'm a good surfer and a good kiter, but not a great kite surfer and am still working on linking turns with a kite. I've got crap low-end mostly on-shore wind here in SD.

First impression out of the box is that this board is beautiful! Really a nice shape and the heavy glass job is smooth, nice and well done. The graphic on the board looks super sweet and I hated to cover some of it up with a tail pad. The tail pad that's included is pretty thin and cheap, but works fine and is pre-cut with the screw holes. The fins that come with the board are plastic futures but seem to be a really nice shape, just not high quality materials. I understand this was done to keep the price down. The pads are soft and nice, but a bitch to screw on as they have 2 layers of neoprene that cover the screw. After removing and installing a few times, this does get easier. There are a lot of screw holes on the board which leaves a number of different strap positions. The straps are not adjustable so they have to be unscrewed/rescrewed to move them. Not a big deal to me.

On the water this board is very fast and floaty. Back to back with last year's LF surfboard really shows how much faster it feels in the water. This is my first quad fin performance shape, but I've surfed a few fish shaped boards. The board turns on a dime and took some getting used to as it pivots (skatey) more than carves at first. It's taken some getting used to not having that center fin on the turns and I still do not feel much drive out of my bottom turns like I do on a thruster. I noticed this when paddle surfing this board as well. I don't think I want to change my surf boards to quads, but I really like the way the quad feels when kiting upwind and riding powered. I need to work on finding the drive out of turns and this will be a perfect board.

I've had a few days well overpowered on this board and it is a handful. It's big at 6'2" and very floaty like a real surf board so if you're not careful it'll bounce out. There's a really nice sweet spot on the tail just above where I keep my straps which when you plant your foot there shoots the board upwind and holds a really fast line. That being said, I would not hesitate to take it out overpowered and felt (mostly) in control the whole time.

The construction has really impressed me. Last year's LF board fell apart if you jumped it, turns yellow quickly and dings pretty easily. This new construction has been great. The board is a little heavy for a 6'2" surfboard, but very light compared to some other kite specific boards (North, SS). Paddle surfing it, I could feel the additional weight, but it wasn't really a problem and I will continue to paddle this board. I can't claim to feel the intricacies of "flex" but this board feels more lively to me than my old North Rocketfish 5'10" . The LF feels more like a surf board whereas the North feels more like a kiteboard. I've pounded this board 3 times where I cringed thinking I'd ruined my new board and none of them resulted in any ding or marks. One bad jump landing, one smack of a wave lip that I didn't quite clear and a bad crash where my bar hit the board hard. No dings. Sweetness.

There are at least 3 other 6'2"s in SD and everyone I've talked to or loaned my board to has been pretty excited. The only person to complain really likes thruster setups and doesn't like the skatey turns of a quad.

All in all, I am extremely happy with this board and have pulled my other boards out of the truck to get more time on the LF. I would recommend better stomp pads, possibly upgrading the fins and maybe adjustable foot straps, but none of these things really detract from the board and I'd buy it again if I lost it.

Ha! Google search to see if I could find a deal on one of these boards and the second result was my own review!

Here's an update 2 years later. This has been my only kite surfboard since I bought it and I rode it almost all the time, only switching to TTs in flat water or extreme winds. This weekend one of the inserts came loose making removing the strap impossible as it was just spinning under the glass. I eventually had to rip it out. It's fixable and only the second repair I've had to do in 2 years, other than snapping fins. The board shows some wear, but will last another season at least. Was only hoping I could find a good deal and pick up a new one.

Great board and I've been very very happy with it. I'd go smaller next time since I really can't paddle a 6'2" as well as I'd like and I have been overpowered on the 6'2".

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